Why Margery Allingham?

Why does the work of this golden age writer form the focus of our new club?

Well, I’m an avid reader of detective fiction, and Margery Allingham is—by some margin—my all-time favourite “queen of crime”. I’ve been delighted and inspired by her writing for many years, and it’s a huge pleasure to channel that inspiration into a new collection of designs, as well as to have an opportunity to read ten classic Allingham novels together with club members, and share her wonderful work with those of you who might still be unaware of just how brilliant she is. 

Margery Allingham was a writer of detective fiction’s golden age, and the patterns I’ve created for this collection reflect the modernist, can-do aesthetic of that time, as well as the fun, vim, and variety that I feel are chief characteristics of Allingham herself. 

 One of the things that’s so refreshing about Allingham’s novels is that (unlike those of some of her contemporaries) there’s no predictable formula. Each book is different from the next, and each carries its own genuine surprises. Like an innovative knitter, experimenting with a brand new cast on or an interesting way of turning short rows, Allingham is always willing to try something different in her writing, to take genre itself in new directions, to rip it up, and start again. 

Which of her contemporaries would have deftly transformed their detective from foppish gentleman adventurer to world-weary war-time spy, or pushed at the very boundaries of the crime novel itself, from Sweet Danger’s wild and whacky rural romp to the gripping 24-hour-thriller action of Hide my Eyes? Who else could paint the characters and colours of London’s Barrow (Harrow) Road just as vividly as those of Essex village life? Which other golden age writer might leave the reader drop jawed, open mouthed, and roaring with laughter, all in the course of a few pages?

And who else but Margery Allingham could write just as acutely, and just as disarmingly, of Britain’s shifting manners and mores at the turn of the 1960s as she did in the 1920s beginnings of her career?

Margery Allingham was continually curious about what made people tick, through time. In her plots, both teenagers and the elderly play unusually important roles, as she explored the intergenerational differences that defined her age. Never stuffy, never snobbish, there’s food for thought and entertainment in every single book. And whether you read just one novel, or all ten titles on our club reading list, you’ll find them ideal summer reads.

. . . Margery Allingham also loved dogs (their intelligence, their joyful anarchy) . . .

. . . and she once appeared in an advertisement for Martini.

So what are you having? A foaming tankard of Honesty Bull’s nut brown ale or a sparkling flute of champers? Tea from a china cup or (Miss Jessica insists) a tansy tisane sipped from one of the family’s last “best” glasses? Whatever your preference, you’ll be refreshed and inspired, as we explore ten tip-top novels of detective fiction’s golden age in KDD’s Summer of Mystery!

sign up to join us before April 21st